Work Cited

Work Cited

Allen, Kristen. “Two Magical Centuries: How the Grimms Cast a Spell on the World - SPIEGEL ONLINE - International.” SPIEGEL ONLINE, SPIEGEL ONLINE, 20 Dec. 2012, www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/200th-anniversary-the-cultural-legacy-of-grimms-fairy-tales-a-874054.html.

Berlin, Allan Hall in. “Nazi Fairy Tales Paint Hitler as Little Red Riding Hoods Saviour.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 15 Apr. 2010, www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/7594061/Nazi-fairy-tales-paint-Hitler-as-Little-Red-Riding-Hoods-saviour.html.

Brandows Animations. "Shrek fairytale creatures part 1." YouTube, 30 Nov. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=Gh8l9jtv_rg

Brandows Animations. "Shrek Fairytale Creatures Part 2." YouTube, 30 Nov. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCE6BwMky6E

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Grimm's Law.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 11 Mar. 2016, www.britannica.com/topic/Grimms-law.

Brothers-grimm-fairy-tales-arthur-rackham-first-american0. Digital image. Pinterest. N.p., n.d. Web.

Cannato, Vincent J., et al. “How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale.” National Endowment for the Humanities, 2015, www.neh.gov/humanities/2015/marchapril/feature/how-the-grimm-brothers-saved-the-fairy-tale.

Denecke, Ludwig. “Brothers Grimm.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 17 

Nov. 2017, www.britannica.com/biography/Brothers-Grimm.

Disney-logo-png-transparent-download. Digital image. Diy Logo Designs. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://diylogodesigns.com/blog/disney-logo/>.

Greenspan, Jesse. “The Dark Side of the Grimm Fairy Tales.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 17 Sept. 2013, www.history.com/news/the-dark-side-of-the-grimm-fairy-tales.

“Grimm.” RPG, www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/grimm-rpg/.

“Grimm's Fairy Tales.” Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science, www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/grimmtmp/.

Grimmslaw. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://pages.uoregon.edu/l150web/weblec4.2.html>.

Gr01_main. Digital image. Fantasy Flight Games. N.p., n.d. Web. <https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/grimm-rpg/products/grimm-core-rulebook-pdf-download/>.

Gutenberg. “List of Fairy Tale Characters in Shrek.” List of Fairy Tale Characters in Shrek | Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing - EBooks | Read EBooks Online, www.gutenberg.us/articles/eng/list_of_fairy_tale_characters_in_shrek.

Lee, Cheryl, "Fantasy Versus Fairy Tale: How Modern Fairy Tale Variants Measure up to One of the Greatest Literary Traditions of All Time." (2013). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 87. http://dc.etsu.edu/honors/87

Nazi_1616990c. Digital image. The Telegraph. N.p., n.d. Web. <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/7594061/Nazi-fairy-tales-paint-Hitler-as-Little-Red-Riding-Hoods-saviour.html>.

Popova, Maria. “Philip Pullman Reimagines the Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm.” Brain Pickings, 18 Sept. 2015, www.brainpickings.org/2012/11/09/philip-pullman-grimm/.

“The Legacy of the Grimm Brothers: Origins and Transformations–a Guest Post by Amalie Dieter.” Welcome to Literary Ashland, Jan. 24AD, 2017, literaryashland.org/?p=9986. 

TheMediaDB. "Once upon a time ABC New Tv series Trailer." Youtube, 11 May. 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rga4rp4j5TY&feature=youtu.be

Wilhelm-and-jacob-grimm. Digital image. National Library of Scotland. N.p., n.d. Web.

YouTube Movies. "The Brothers Grimm - Trailer." YouTube, 31 Dec. 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnboj1T3UEQ&feature=youtu.be

Class Reflection

Throughout all my years in education, I've always enjoyed reading stories in English class. Even when the reading is hard or simply not interesting, I still enjoy the subject. I enjoy breaking a scene or character down to it's bare essentials and finding themes within stories. The stories that we read this semester were rather. "The Cask of Amontillado" and "Oedipus" are the stories I enjoyed the most, reading and writing about. My views of literature have changed, and I have most definitely learned that any type of story is worth reading. I have also learn to appreciate author's more. I enjoyed learning how Emily Dickinson has thousands of unpublished poems, and the mysterious death of Edgar Allan Poe

The class itself was rather difficult, in my opinion. I had outside sources effecting my work ethic and at home projects, but I attempted to work past that. I did struggle at some points, more specifically, the two essays, and even this final blog. I was originally very worried about how I was going to handle this, but once I found a topic I wanted to center it on, my anxiety lessened. With the blog, I was able to present my ideas in my own way, and was given the liberty to add my own connections to certain points in my blog.

A small qualm I have this class, more specifically, online. All of my other professors use blackboard, except my English professors. The college supplied professors and students with a site that functions well and is used for updates on classes and grades, and I don't understand why some professors neglect to use it. The blog accomplishes the same thing as Blackboard, without the grades.

Final Statement

I greatly enjoyed researching the Grimm Brothers. The significance of the Grimm Brothers lies with their collected stories, and how ageless they seem. In fact, many people in this class have probably seen or read several of these tales in a film or novel. As previously mentioned, many people in the past and present use the Grimm Brother's tales as some sort of reference, whether it be the brothers them selves, or the tales. Its quite jarring to see how grim and different the older tales were, from how gruesome they were to how antisemitic some where. Nevertheless, these stories have survived for almost 200 years, while evolving constantly throughout

Some more on legacy...

The cover of the Grimm core rule book, with a tagline that reads "A role-playing game of adventure in a world of twisted fairy tales."

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/grimm-rpg/

Trailer for The Brothers Grimm film

Trailer for Once Upon a Time television series

Legacy of the Grimm Brothers

December 20th, 1812, is when the the Grimm Brothers published their first edition of "Children's and Household Tales," now commonly refereed to as "Grimms' Fairy Tales" (Battistella), It is considered on of the most popular literary works of German origin (Battistella). The stories are translated into more then 160 different languages. By publishing this collection, the Grimm Brothers would weave fairy tales into the daily lives of many people, even today. The Grimms fostered an endless source of inspiration for writers, filmmakers and artists, who all take from their published works (Battistella).

Countless people and companies today use the original stories as reference. Disney is leading example of this, as mentioned earlier, with at-least 8 of their films being directly based on the family-friendly versions of various Grimm Brother's stories. Most of these films were a massive success, and were a major part of many people's childhood memories. A movie titled "The Brothers Grimm" was released in 2005 (Battistella). While main characters of the movie bare the same name as the brothers, but don't exactly follow the same role. Rather then being writers, the brothers are con-artists, and the world they inhabit is full of the tales they helped collect. A recent TV series titled "Once Upon a Time" uses many of the original stories as references and characters. Many fantasy games, films, and TV series will often have a character relating to one of the tales. For example, there exists a Dungeon & Dragons add on simply named "Grimm," which consists of many of the original tales' settings, with the main characters being the players.

Shrek and Hoodwinked

Disney has made several films featuring solely on Grimm Fairy tales. However, one film in particular wasn't based on the stories exactly, but instead created a world with the characters from the stories inhabiting it. Yes, this movie is "Shrek." In the world of "Shrek," many of the original Grimm fairy tales make appearances, but in some sort of weird, cartoon-ish way. Puss in Boots is a swashbuckler, Snow White is very vain and proud, and boasts that she is the "fairest in the land," Cinderella is a germophobe, Sleepy Beauty is lazy and is asleep for a good portion of the film (Gutenberg). One of the more comical variants of the classic fairy tales is that the Big Bad Wolf is quite kind-hearted, and has befriended the three little pigs. (Gutenberg)

These two videos showcase many of the Fairy Tales creatures in Shrek

Another animated fairy tale film, that is not produced by Disney, tried to do what Shrek did, make a world of wacky fairy tale characters. This movie is "Hoodwinked." In this movie world, the story of "Litte Red Riding Hood" is interrupted with a police investigation about the events of story. The movie tries to be a crime mystery, featuring many characters from tales collected by the Grimm Brothers.

Grimm Brother's stories in Modern times

When they first appeared, the Grimm Brother's stories differed extremely from the stories of today. They were much darker, with characters often dying or being tortured in very grotesque ways. In modern times, most of the stories have been striped of that violence and adapted to appeal to a younger audience. During the beginning of motion pictures, fairy tales were ideal for film making, due to the fact that they didn't need much exposition or explanation, as most of the tales were well known, and the stories themselves were short. However, as film evolved, fairy tales faded.

By the time animated movies began, fairy tales were adopted by this new movie format. An animation company known as "Laugh-'O-Gram" was creating shortened, altered versions of the original tales. At this point in time, a certain skilled animator wished to create animations that were more faithful to the original tales. This man's name is Walt Disney (Lee, 12). After creating his own company, he wished to create "Snow White," but with more of the Grimm Brother's ideas (Lee, 12). All of the darker ideas were vetoed by the staff, the only route to go was to create a version without any of the darker aspects (Lee, 13). This film, of course, was extremely popular. Animated fairy tales films following the release of "Snow White" were devoid of anything dark, thus creating the modern fairy tale genre.

How the Grimm Brothers saved fairy tales

Looking back, the original stories aren't fairy tales in the way we know them to be today. In the present, fairy tales are usually whimsical and fantastical, with the main character usually being immaculate. During the Grimm Brothers time, they were absurd, blunt, and comical. Despite what many people think, the Grimm Brothers DID NOT write any of the stories. Before the first publication, none of the stories were published, and were rather shared through spoken words. This often lead to them being changed from every retelling. The Brothers, wishing to preserve these stores, collected and published them.

The very first iteration of stories were not meant for children. The brothers thought the stories stemmed naturally from the Germanic people through oral retelling, which made them hard to preserve. Seeing this, the brothers wanted to make a collection of the stories before they were lost forever. By gathering the tales, the brothers made an important contribution to fairy tales and folklore (Zipes). The first collection of stories would become extremely popular in the time it was first published, become second only to the bible (Zipes). The original stories of the first edition showed the storytellers believed in magic, fantasy and the ever changing nature of the stories.

Nazi Germany's fairy tales

As I mentioned earlier, during the time when Germany was under Hitler's rule, they needed some sort of way to advocate Hitler and Nazism to smaller children. And the way that was chosen was to use Grimm Fairy tales and change certain aspects to fit the Nazi ideals. A film of "Little Red Riding Hood" was produced during this time, with major changes to the already gruesome story (Hall). The main child's outfit is now embezzled with swatstikas, and is later saved from the Big Bad Wolf by a man in a SS uniform (Hall). "Snow White" was also made into a film. In this version, Snow White's father is portrayed as a powerful Nazi general, who recently launches an assault onto the "eastern enemy" (Hall). This film just so happened to be released a few months after Germany invades Poland. Finally, in "Puss in Boots," the titular character transforms into Hitler at the end of the film, while a crowd shouts phrases like "Heil Puss in Boots!" and "He is our savior!" (Hall)

A SS officer prepares to kill the Big Bad Wolf in Nazi Germany's Little Red Riding Hood

The Original Stories

In today's media, the Grimm fairy tales are depicted as being children friendly. The character's are faced with some sort of obstacle, in which they overcome and live happily ever after and etc. Its commonly known that the portrayal of the stories now isn't the correct portrayal, but most people don't the the true extent of how grim the original stories were.

A main point in the original stories is how violent they were. Horrific incidents occur all the time in these stories. In "Snow White," a story which everyone knows from their children, is one of these kinds of horrific stories. The wicked queen was originally forced to dance in red iron hot shoes, killing her (Greenspan). Things get even more horrific. In "The Goose Maid," a rather unknown story, has a woman being stuffed naked into a barrel filled with nails, then dragged through the streets (Greenspan). In "Cinderella,"another well known story, the stepsisters cut off all of their toes, in a foolish attempt to fit into the glass slipper. At the end of the story, their eyes are pecked out by doves (Greenspan).

Grimm stories additionally feature child abuse. In "The Juniper Tree", a stepmother beheads her stepson while he bent over, and then proceeds to chop up the body and feeds it to her husband, who greatly enjoys the meal and asks for more (Greenspan). In another tale, "Frau Trude," a young girl is transformed into block of wood, and cast into a fire(Greenspan).

Something else that is quite shocking about the Grimm Brothers is a story which is often withheld from newer collections, for obvious reasons. The name of the story is "The Jew in the Brambles," in which the main character tortures a Jewish man by having dance upon a thicket of thorns, while calling him "a dirty dog" (Greenspan). Some of the Grimm Brother's stories were so anti-semitic, that during the Third Reich, Nazis used some stories as propaganda (Hall). One example is "Little Red Riding Hood" was symbolized as the wolf being a Jew, and Germany suffering at the hands of the wolf/Jew (Greenspan).

Why not take a look...

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/grimmtmp/

This website has over 200 of the original tales translated int English. All of these stories are directly from the most recent/faithful publication. Some may have missing ends.

On a side note, Grimm's Law

The name may imply that this "law" has something to do with fairy tales, it does not. Rather then fairy tales, this law deals with sounds and language.
While Jacob Grimm did help his brother collect fairy tales, he was also interested in language. In 1817, in a book Jacob published entitles "Deutsche Grammatik," Jacob describes how certain words and phrases in different languages have the same meaning using an idea known as Grimm's Law (Grimm's Law). This study was important for historical linguistics, as it showcased that the change in sound is a regular event, and not a random change (Grimm's Law). Jacob Grimm not only made literary history, but linguistic history as well

.

Synopsis of the Grimm Brothers

Everyone, at some point in their life, has probably read or watched some sort of fairy tale. Such examples of Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, and more recently for most of the people in this class, Godfather Death. While most of these are portrayed today as whimsical Disney animated movies, they were actually written nearly 200 hundred years ago by two brothers, Jacob Ludwig Carl and Wilhelm Carl Grimm. The oldest of 6 siblings, Jacob and Wilhelm were both born in the town of Hanau. They attended high school in Kassel, and like their father before them, they both studied law at the University of Marburg from 1802 to 1806 (Denecke). At Marburg, they meet two men named Clemens Brentano and Friedrich Karl von Savigny. Various conversations and expericnes with these men led the brothers to look into folklore and old Germanic folklore. (Denecke). In the year 1816, both of the brothers elected to drop studying law, and focus solely on folk literature and music (Denecke). 

The significance of the Brothers and their stories is that without the Grimm Brothers deciding to collect all these stories, they may not have collected, and might not have survived orally for 200 years. A lot of fantasy stories and movies use the tales the Grimm Brothers collected, so without the published collections, many movies and books may not have been created and published.

What is this blog on?

When it comes to stories, I am a typical geek, and by that, I mean I highly enjoy a fantasy/supernatural setting. Most of the stories we've read in class, while they were good reads, didn't really focus on this theme and setting. However, Godfather Death, a story we read towards the beginning of the semester, greatly intrigued me. The author(s) of the this story were none other then the Grimm Brothers. Most of the Grimm Brothers stories, while aren't high fantasy, still have some elements of fantasy in them. In fact, in my senior year of high school, my English teacher briefly spoke of the Grimm Brothers whilst on the topic of old German folk stories.


Many children's fairy tale stories and Disney movies use the Grimm Brother's stories for reference, but they tend to leave out the horribly violent aspects of the stories (which I will cover in a following post). Another small reason is that a set of characters in Dragon Ball Z, a series I am fond of, get their names directly from an incantation shown in Cinderella.

Chacters I've played in games of Pathfinder, and Tragic Heroes

I have played several games of Pathfinder/D&D, and my characters will sometimes meet fates I didn't intend for them. Upon analyzing the "tragic hero" archetype I learned in class, I was able to realize several of my characters ended up falling in the same category as a tragic hero, all without my intervention

The first one who falls in this category, (who was also my character ever), was a chaotic evil skeleton named Calibri. Throughout the campaign, many beings met their demise by this character's bony hands, most importantly, a young gnome boy. Later on, one of the people he traveled with suddenly attacked a town after losing some money through gambling (this character was actually played by Dante). During this encounter, he unknowingly defended the citizens of the city. By doing this, he learned that saving lives was enjoyable then taking them. From this point on, he sight his sights on obtaining a wish to bring back the people he has killed and to right his wrongs. At point, he met with the father of the gnome he had killed, and promised him his son back. Upon obtaining the wish, before he was able to declare his demands, his friend rushed in, and wished instead to turn Calibri into a human again, greatly angering him. The misfortune he experienced here was done for the amusement of another.

The second character was a high ranking member of a military unit, who was often described as a "one man army" or "trump card". His name was Darwin, and through some rather tragic events, met a young thief named Lugh (this character was played by Dan F.). These two character's lost their families/friends, and were all each other had. Further down the campaign, Darwin met a woman who he immediately fell in love with, and Lugh met up with his long lost sister Vera, who is a phoenix, and was presumed dead. However, the circumstance of their meeting was disheartening, as Darwin was forced to choose to join Lugh and his sister in committing an act of terrorism toward the corrupt ruler of a city (who was actually the father of Lugh and Vera), or staying with the woman he loved to guard the city. Darwin stayed with the woman he loved, and hoped to change the radical ideals of his friend. Luckily for him, he did, then the pair went to finish off the corrupt ruler, which would have fulfilled both their goals. But before they were able, Vera transformed into a radiant phoenix, and incinerated Darwin and Lugh's father. In the moment he died, Darwin shielded Lugh from the blast saving his life.

The final and most recent character, was a former member to a mafia leader. His name is Shiva, and he served as the right hand man of the mafia leader. He fell in love with a woman, had children, and left the mafia life to raise his family. Years later, the mafia leader, (who's name was Orville), kidnapped Shiva's family and held them for ransom unless Shiva would help him in a quest given to him by a letter. Shiva had no choice but to comply. Further into the campaign, it's discovered that outside forces seek to destroy the enter universe. At this point Orville decides to release Shiva's family, and then prepares himself to be killed my Shiva. Shiva, however, realizes that a new, much more threatening enemy has showed itself. Shiva now wishes to defeat this great evil, and to live a happy life with his family. However, things don't go his way. In the final battle with an immensely powerful being named Nyarlathotep, Shiva and his party discovered that the being was immortal. Shiva, taking fate into his own hands, jettisoned himself and Nyarlathotep out of the universe, dooming them both to an eternity of floating in nothingness. While Shiva did defeat the great evil threatening his world, he wasn't able to celebrate his victory with his friends or family.